By connecting and retaining a connection to any part of the PonyChat Network
(PonyChat) you state that you have read, understand, and hereby agree to comply
and accept the following terms of use and disclaimers stated in this document
(Terms of Service), as well as any policies specified in on the IRC MOTD (type
/motd in your IRC client).

If you do not agree to the Terms of Service, do not connect or disconnect now
and do not reconnect!

TERMS OF SERVICE

In general, the Terms of Service prohibits uses and activities involving the
Service that are illegal, infringe the rights of others, or interfere with or
diminish the use and enjoyment of the Service by others. For example, these
prohibited uses and activities include, but are not limited to:

Child Exploitation

You may not use PonyChat to distribute, facilitate to distribute, or direct
link to any content that exploits minors in a sexual or violent manner,
solicits for exchange, sale or purchase of, and/or material harmful to minors
(as determined in PonyChat’s sole discretion); including, but not limited to,
any photograph, film, video, or picture or computer generated image or picture
(actual or simulated).

Adults may not engage in a conversation of a sexual nature with anyone that is
under 18 years of age.

You may not violate the privacy of, or solicit personal information from,
anyone under 18 years of age.

Adults may not attempt to meet in person anyone that is under 18 years of age.

Trading or Sharing of Sexual Images or Text

Before sharing images of a sexual nature, including but not limited to nude
photography and pornography, or any images of a questionable nature in any
channels you must obtain the prior consent of the channel’s operators and warn
that the image is sexual and not safe for work. Channel topics may give such
consent.

Channels which permit sexual or otherwise mature content must explicitly state
the mature nature of the channel in the beginning of the channel topic by
including “[18+][NSFW]” as the beginning of the topic text. Channels may opt
for a mature audience but require safe for work links using “[SFW]” instead.

Channel operators of mature channels are responsible for the verification of
the age of present users. Channels which are not labeled as such are not
permitted to share any sexual content.

Privacy, Hacking, and Cracking

You may not violate the privacy of anyone by disclosing any Private Messages,
Notices, Logs or snippets from Private Channels, or any other personal or
private information of another individual or individuals, including but not
limited to, government issued identification numbers, phone numbers, email
addresses, mailing or street addresses, vehicle descriptions, physical
descriptions, sexual orientation, or other types of personal or contact
information.

You may not use PonyChat to gain unauthorized access to any computer systems.
You may not attempt to monitor or tamper with another user’s electronic
communications.

You may not knowingly or carelessly perform an act that will interfere with the
normal operations of computers, servers, or processes. No denial of service
(“DoS”) actions or abuse of anyone’s resources, including but not limited to
flooding, cloning, mass-messaging, and mass-inviting.

You may not make unauthorized attempts to circumvent data protection schemes or
uncover security holes and vulnerabilities. This includes creating and/or
running programs that are designed to identify holes, vulnerabilities, and/or
decrypt intentionally secure data.

You may not participate in the collection of e-mail addresses, screen names, or
other identifiers of others or participate in the use of software (including
“spyware”) designed to facilitate this activity.

You may not access, use, read, copy, change, or delete another user’s
NickServ/ChanServ/MemoServ account.

You may not alter or fake user@host information to evade a ban, falsify your
identity, or to achieve anonymity. Open proxies, TOR (The Onion Router exit
nodes, not our TOR hidden service), and other anonymization services, schemes,
and/or techniques are strictly prohibited, with the exception of our TOR hidden
service.

Malware

You may not advertise, distribute, or link to software viruses or any other
computer code, files or programs designed to capture information, interrupt,
destroy, and/or limit the functionality of any computer software and/or
hardware or telecommunications equipment.

You may not run programs known as, including but not limited to, spam bots,
flood bots, clone bots, leech clients, file servs, dccbots, Trojan bots, or
zombies. (Friendly bots are welcome.)

Advertising and Commercial Purposes

You may not use PonyChat resources for commercial activity without prior
approval of the PonyChat administration. This includes, but is not limited to,
the promotion of any business, corporation, non-profit, product, or service,
free or otherwise, unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail”,
“spam”, “chain letters”, “pyramid schemes” or any other form of solicitation or
promotion.

You may not initiate, perpetuate, or in any way participate in any pyramid or
other illegal scheme.

You may not post links for any type of affiliate program with or without
referrer IDs without the channel owner’s expressed permission.

Disruptive Behavior

Speech which is harassing, threatening, hateful, intimidating, or promotes
physical harm of any kind against any group or individual is prohibited.

You may not intentionally repeat or transmit material in a rapid manner
producing the affect of harassing a user by “flooding” them.

You may not promote information that you know is false or misleading or
promotes illegal activities or conduct that is defamatory or libelous.

You may not impersonate another user in order to deceive or mislead.

CHILDREN AND TEEN POLICY

You must be at least 13 years old to use PonyChat without parental supervision.
IRC may not be suitable for children of any age. Please supervise your child’s
IRC session.

You may not attempt to meet anyone in person if you are under 18 years of age!
(It is dangerous to get together with someone you first met on-line. Remember,
you never know if people you first met on-line are who they say they are or are
your age. If you want to meet with someone, discuss it with your parents or
guardians first, and never go to the meeting by yourself. Arrange to meet in
a public place like a coffee shop or mall you are comfortable with. Have your
parents or guardians talk with the parents or guardians of the other person.
Both of you should bring your parents or guardians along on the first meeting.)

If any conversation makes you uncomfortable tell your parents and a PonyChat
Administrator immediately!

DISCLAIMERS

Considering the real-time nature of IRC, it is impossible for PonyChat’s staff
and volunteers to review all channels and messages for the validity of
information provided in them. PonyChat does not vouch for or warrant the
content clarity, accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any user’s advice,
and is not responsible for it. The messages express the views of the author of
the message, not necessarily the views of PonyChat or any other entity or
person(s) associated with the administration of this network.

No responsibility for computer damage, data loss, or any other related damage
shall be implied by any PonyChat server administrator or any other entity or
person(s) associated with the administration of this network. By using any
PonyChat server, you hereby state and agree that you release PonyChat, its
servers, administrators, operators, and any other volunteer of PonyChat from
all responsibility or legal liability which might result from your use of
PonyChat servers. You may not use PonyChat if its use violates any applicable
law or regulation.

We reserve the right to restrict a user’s access to our servers if their speech
does not meet our standards. PonyChat and any other entity or person(s)
associated with the administration of this network does not assume any
liability if we fail to remove any user, and makes the final determination
about whether someone’s speech is objectionable or not. PonyChat does not
endorse or oppose opinions expressed by our users.

PonyChat administrators reserve the right to deny access to and use of PonyChat
or any of its other resources, including but not limited to nick and/or channel
services, message boards, blogs, technical mailing lists, and FTP sites, to any
user, group, site, or domain without the benefit of prior warning or
notification.

Please remember that you are a guest on PonyChat at all times, and you are
expected to conduct yourself accordingly. All rulings by our staff are absolute
and final.

CONSEQUENCES FOR VIOLATION

If you violate any of the Terms of Service, or any rule or regulation on the
MOTD of any PonyChat server, or fail to comply with any PonyChat Staff member
demand or request you will be subject to disciplinary action, including but not
limited to denial of access to PonyChat, legal action, and/or criminal
prosecution where applicable.

Denial of access to a particular PonyChat server or the entire network can be
made at our Staff’s discretion. Your entire Internet Service Provider may be
denied access to the server or network if you successfully evade a ban and your
ISP may be notified of your inappropriate behavior and they may suspend or
revoke your Internet access completely.

Each server’s staff retains the right to deny access to or use of its server’s
resources to any user(s), group, site, or domain, without the benefit of prior
warning or notification if they so choose.

YOUR CONSENT TO THIS POLICY

By using PonyChat, you agree to this Terms of Service Policy.

CONTACTING THE ADMINISTRATION

For further information on anything contained in this document, please /join
#help and ask to speak with an operator or email
staff@ponychat.net.

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